urbanlight photography

The Melbourne Film Shooter’s Guide

Melbourne has a thriving film shooting community. Whether you are a rusted-on believer in the old ways, or simply film curious, then living in or visiting this city gives you an opportunity to buy gear, meet other like-minded folk or just get your analogue fix.

The Melbourne Film Shooter’s guide is a record of where to go to get your analogue desires met. This page contains

This aims to be an all-inclusive list. It is not a set of hand-picked recommendations. I do try and keep this information current but please contact labs you discover via this list to check opening hours and services offered before heading across town as things are ever changing.

If you are aware of any errors or omissions, please do get in touch and through the magic of 20/20 hindsight all will be made good.

michaels camera & Video(CBD)
Windows on Lonsdale Street display second hand gear, also a good place to meet other film shooters.

Peony Garden (CBD)
283 Little Lonsdale Street
No website, no phone,… (think Portlandia)
A bit of a Melbourne curiosity, only open for an hour or two a day, has two cabinets of interesting film cameras at the back of the store. The rest of the store contains miscellaneous analogue or unidentifiable items.

Analogue aware camera repairers

Several repairers will be able to assist with repairs of analogue gear.

Nagami Camera Service

Vintech

Other organisations you should know about

Asia Pacific Photobook Archive

The Asia Pacific Photobook Archive (APPA) a not-for-profit open-access physical archive of self-published and independent photobooks. The APPA is established to provide a ‘real’ way to see photobooks that would otherwise only be viewable online.website | facebook

Gold Street Studios

Offering workshops, supplies and resources for large format and alternate process photography. Located in Trentham Victoriagoldstreetstudios.com.au

The Fox Darkroom is a newly opened darkroom in Kensington. Offering darkroom hire and analogue photo courses.

Several Melbourne Silver Mine members run darkrooms and they occasionally make them available to members of the group or the public. Their flickr forum is a good place to ask for what’s out there, or email info@silvermine.org.au

Galleries

There are several galleries in Melbourne that either specialise in photography or almost do.

Mr Alan Adler working on one of Melbourne’s few remaining analogue photo booths. The booth was recently moved from the Elizabeth Street Entrance to Flinders Street station to a new spot, still on Flinders Street but a little closer to the main station entrance.

Updates

This Guide is maintained by Chris Zissiadis, keen film snapper and shooter of Melbourne things.

Please let me know of any errors, omissions or new stuff. Email me, or leave a comment below.

Hey I was just wondering if you had a list of analogue photo booths that still exist around Melbourne? I know there’s one on Chapel Street (well from the last time I checked) but I would love to find some others! Cheers 🙂

I know the booths at the Elizabeth Street entrance to Flinders Street Station are analogue, and the booth that was located at the top of the escalators near the La Trobe Street and Swanston Street corner of Melbourne Central (the floor where the cinema is) was analogue, but I’d need to check that it’s still in operation and not swapped to a digital booth since all the changes at Melbourne Central.

A few changes to the lab list today.
We welcome Hillvale – http:://hillvale.com.au
I’ve added Digi Direct to the list, they are on the old Camera House site corner of Lt Bourke and Elizabeth and still do 35mm priocessing.|
Updated Jade Studio (mentone) details, there were rumours that they were closing down, but these were false, great news.

I don’t list prices in the guide at this stage, price is not an indicator of quality – good or bad. If you have a lot to develop most places will do a deal with you so I’d suggest you get in touch with a few labs. Expect to pay $7 for develop only 35mm. At the moment Hillvale are new and reasonably priced. Light Leaks also have a special on Tuesdays which makes their services pretty economical. But please get in touch with labs near you.

Thanks for the comment Bernd, but I am happy to confirm that The Pro Lab are still there, full service lab. They moved a few doors closer to Chapel Street a year ago (today as it happens) but definitely still at 209 Toorak Road.South Yarra.

Hi Kate, yes I’d like to have that information included, I plan to contact all the labs soon to get updated information and will ask them specifically about “optical” prints. There aren’t many that I’m aware of and none that I have personal experience with but I have heard people mention Bond Imaging still offer this service.

Added The Instant Camera Guy to the repairers list. Jake recently relocated to Melbourne from Perth, repairs, mods and sells a wide range of instant cameras and also repairs other analogue gear, in particular the Canon A Series (which reminds me, my A1 needs some attention) Facebook

A few changes to the list. The Kodak lab at the end of Elizabeth Street in the CBD closed in March 2014.
Strange Neighbour’s Darkroom is now available – http://strangeneighbour.com/darkroom/
I’ve added the Asia Pacific Photobook Archive, a really great resource to have in our city http://photobookarchive.com/
I’ve also added ACME to the list of darkrooms, although they are in Yarra Glen.

Really loving this guide. I’m getting into film photography, and I was wondering if there was a guide that includes stores that sell film cameras around Melbourne. I really like seeing the physical things before buying them.

Hi Ashan, I’ll update the list with this information once I’ve had a chance to gather it all together, thanks for the question.
Stores vary depending on whether you are looking for new or used gear, and if new whether you are looking for lomography type products or foilm cameras manufactured by the major digital equipment guys.

You can check out lomography gear at a few “fashion” stores around town, search for Urban Attitude and Incu. Photo labs and stores that stock cameras include Michaels (mainly second hand or high end new), Camera Lane (mainly second hand), Light Leaks (a bit of everything, mainly new lomo), Filmneverdie.com (mainly new and used instant photography gear).

Sad news that Light Leaks lab in St Kilda has closed its doors. Light Leaks was a very popular hub for film shooters and it will be missed by many of us. The closure is immediate, if you have film still with them then email admin@lightleaksphoto.com.

Acme et al in Yarra Glen not only have a darkroom for hire, but still process and print commercially up to 20×24″ – they only handle B&W. They re-located from Punt Road, South Yarra in ’04 – they were Acme Black + White back then… remember the b+w hereford cow fence? Maybe too long ago, but anyway they’re still around.

Many thanks for this list. I’m a film shooter, but a Melbs neophyte (from NYC originally, but have lived in NSW for the past 13 years). Heading in for a weekend break at the end of August to meander around town & also check out the BIFB Collection 14 event… and now I have just the guide I need to carry with me. Found my way here from MSM on flickr as I know you folks are always super helpful in this dept.

Kmart is worthy of a mention sure particularly if you don’t live near a lab.
But I’m only listing labs that do some form of processing in house at this stage.
Kmart, Teds and most of the other major photo retail chains will take your film for you, I’d recommend using a lab on this list however, particularly as many of them will be very happy to take your film via mail order and you can communicate any specific needs you have.

Also worth noting that the analogue photo booth, which was located at the Elizabeth Street entrance to Flinders Street Station has reappeared a few metres further along Flinders Street, closer to the main station entrance.

Several labs large and small bit the dust in the first half of 2016.
I’ve removed The Edge (Collingwood/Burwood) and Photobarn Burwood from the list, and a forthcoming audit of the labs will no doubt unearth several other closures.